1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to mobile applications and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for provisioning a mobile application.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices are increasingly being used to access applications traditionally available on desktop computers. These mobile applications complement the use of desktop computers, and accordingly, the use of mobile applications is increasing. While the sale and/or purchase of desktop applications are well established, no technique currently exists that provides a means to bundle provisioning the mobile application with the sale of a desktop application. Today, when a user purchases a desktop application, a serial number is provided. During installation, the user must manually enter the serial number because the serial number is used to validate the user in the vendor's rights management system. The serial number defines the license rights and/or limits that apply to the user's license, such as a time limit or enabling of product features. In order to provision a mobile application that corresponds to an already purchased desktop application, after the mobile application is downloaded from a mobile application store, the serial number from the desktop application must be entered using the mobile device keypad. This can be cumbersome. In addition, because the serial number is a hard copy provided with the desktop application, there is a chance the serial number could be intercepted by unauthorized users. Conventional techniques are unable to provide any mechanism for user authentication and mobile application provisioning directly from the desktop application.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for provisioning a mobile application from a desktop application.